Climate change, forests, fire, water, and fish
Subtitle: building resilient landscapes, streams, and managers
By: Charles Luce ... [et al.].
Contributors: Rocky Mountain Research Station (Fort Collins, Colo.)
Series: General technical report RMRS -- GTR-290; General technical report RMRS -- GTR-290.
Publisher: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Fort Collins, CO
Language: eng
Number of pages: 207
Subjects: Fire ecology; Wildfires; Forests and forestry; Climatic factors; Climatic changes; Fishes; Effect of fires on
Description: Fire will play an important role in shaping forest and stream ecosystems as the climate changes. Historic observations show increased dryness accompanying more widespread fire and forest die-off. These events punctuate gradual changes to ecosystems and sometimes generate stepwise changes in ecosystems. Climate vulnerability assessments need to account for fire in their calculus. The biophysical template of forest and stream ecosystems determines much of their response to fire. This report describes the framework of how fire and climate change work together to affect forest and fish communities. Learning how to adapt will come from testing, probing, and pushing that framework and then proposing new ideas. The western U.S. defies generalizations, and much learning must necessarily be local in implication. This report serves as a scaffold for that learning. It comprises three primary chapters on physical processes, biological interactions, and management decisions, accompanied by a special section with separately authored papers addressing interactions of fish populations with wildfire. Any one of these documents could stand on its own. Taken together, they serve as a useful reference with varying levels of detail for land managers and resource specialists. Readers looking for an executive summary are directed to the sections titled "Introduction" and "Next Steps."
Notes: Cover title.

"September 2012."

Includes bibliographical references (p. 120-155).

Also available on the World Wide Web.
Table of contents: title: Part I. The physical system -- Part II. Biological systems -- Part III. Management actions and decisions -- Next steps; title: Advanced topics on fish populations and fire --; title: Fire and fish: a synthesis of observation and experience  -- Bruce Rieman, Robert Gresswell, and John Rinne; title: Genetic variation reveals influence of landscape connectivity on population dynamics and resiliency of western trout in disturbance-prone habitats  -- Helen M. Neville, R.E. Gresswell, and J.B. Dunham; title: Fish life histories, wildfire, and resilience: a case study of rainbow trout in the Boise River, Idaho  -- Amanda E. Rosenberger, Jason B. Dunham, and Helen Neville; title: Aquatic species invasions in the context of fire and climate change -- Michael K. Young.